Proposed “raw material reporting system” —a statistical reporting program to be undertaken by an association…

ADVISORY OPINIONS 1179 Proposed “raw material reporting system” —a statistical reporting program to be undertaken by an association of independent

wire drawing companies, File 783 7005.
Opinion Letter
February 9, 1978
Dear Mr. Wasserman:

This letter is in response to your request for an advisory opinion 2oncerning a proposed “raw material reporting system”—a statistical reporting program—to be undertaken by the Independent Wire Producers Association (“IWPA”), an association of independent wire drawing companies. Your request, in this connection, for confidential treatment is denied.

It is the Commission’s understanding that under the proposed “raw material reporting system” each participating IWPA member would report on a regular basis to the statistical branch of the IWPA’s management firm or to an independent economic analysis firm the following details of each applicable raw materials offer the member receives: the quantity, type, weight, foreign country of origin and price of carbon steel wire rod offered, the date the offer was received and the date terminated, and the calendar quarter of offered shipment. The name of the foreign offeror and acceptance or rejection of the offer would not be reported. The IWPA’s management firm or the economic analysis firm would collate the collected information and issue aggregate figures on a monthly basis to all participating members. The aggregate information would reveal neither the names of the reporting member companies, the specific prices offered, nor the names of the foreign offerors. .

The Commission would not initiate proceedings against the IWPA if such a program were adopted provided that (1) the reported data is collected by a firm independent of the IWPA and its members, (2) no individual member’s data is disclosed to any other member, and (8) none of the disseminated aggregate data reveal, directly or indirectly, the identity of foreign wire rod suppliers. You are cautioned, in particular, that the program must not be used in such a manner that it leads to a boycott, to the blacklisting of certain suppliers or groups of suppliers, or to any other unlawful trade restraint. In its consideration of this matter the Commission does not wish to be understood as approving or agreeing with any economic or competitive aspect of the subject proposal unrelated to those features that specifically bear upon its lawfulness under the statutes administered by the Commission.

1180 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION DECISIONS
M
91 F.T.C.
By direction of the Commission.
Staff Memo to the File
June 21, 1977